Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Aaaargh, Heeheehee & Wailing time, folks

Ok, so I've been catching up on some of the less-frequented blogs on my bookmarks list. We are all aware that extreme positions and intolerance rule the world. Yes, Will, "men have lost their reason". But some have lost it more than others.
Blogger Michael informs his readers that The Vatican has blacklistedAmnesty International. Here's the relevant quote from his post.

The Vatican has urged all Catholics to stop donating money to Amnesty International.
Why you might ask, would the Catholic Church do such a thing? Have amnesty been embezzling charitable donations? Have they been found guilty of wide scale child abuse?
No, don’t be silly. Amnesty have simply stated that they are in “support of abortion for women when their health is in danger or human rights are violated, especially in cases of rape or incest.”

I wonder if the decision was taken unanimously when the goup of sixty-nine bishops (lovingly known as VAT 69) met last.
OK ...
but while the Vatican is at one end of the spectrum, this other church is a gasser!
Moving on ... Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James Holsinger, has argued that homosexuality is a disease that can be cured. Stephen Colbert takes him on, while comment-writer ctbrandon has this to say: Anyways, I am glad someone is working on a cure for gayness. Now if we could just get a cure for being black, poor, or non christian, this country could get back to being the nation of freedom that we once were!!!!
:-)And, of course, many blogs are beginning to comment upon 'The Rushdie Affair - Part 2' (soon to be made into a movie called A Knight to Remember). This act by the Queen promises more violence, political opportunism, idiocy and outrageous statements like the one justifying suicide bombing made (and, later, denied) by - as the BBC refers to him - "Mr. Ul Haq". (The 'loo' is silent!). To be fair to him, withdrawal is part of the governing team's strategy. Right now I wish that someone else whose image often haunts my mind had practiced it.

13 Comments:

This whole Rushdie brouhaha is fueled by a combination of burnt out "leaders" and guilt-ridden punters, both eager for any opportunity to demonstrate cathartically for something (nobody is quite sure what) they believe in.

I will add that I am neither what in our land of the puritanical is so pithily termed a "fundo", nor do I belong to that equally intolerant bunch of self-righteous old farts at the other end of the ideological spectrum that I call "ffundophobes".

It's this attempt to capture and/or hold on to the moral high ground that I find so laughable and at the same time so demoralising (pls excuse the pun). Whither moderation and a willingness to listen to (and even contemplate the possibility of accepting) another's point of view?

Why is it that everyone feels the need to control others - the Vatican banning Amnesty International just exposes the Vatican's stupidity and nothing else. Forget the good stuff they do. How dare they disagree with the Vatican on abortion - even if their viewpoint is more humane?

As for curing homosexuality, how about trying to cure greed and corruption and violent behaviour? Or is homosexuality a worse thing?

And yet again Salman Rushdie is back in our lives. Why is it that we care whether he is knighted or not? If he is called Sir Rushdie, how does it affect our lives? All our problems are now no longer important and everyone is issuing statements on Muslim sentiment being hurt. As for the crazy statement justifying suicide bombing, what I want to know is when Ejaz ul Haq said this, why did no-one in government or opposition speak up?

First the ‘Aaargh’Yes Zakintosh, the men at the vatican lost it all just as the mullahs have. It’s okay for rape victims to suffer or those women whose lives are seriously endangered by pregnancy to die – rather murdered by criminal neglect, than have an abortion. Amnesty International and other organisations that are really working for the betterment of human lives and rights can go take a long walk on a short pier!The solution probably lies in the abolition of the clergy of all ilks, or a woman Pope and a woman as the Imam of the Kaaba!Moving on to ‘Heeheehee’Colbert’s take was HILARIOUS! However on a more serious note, there have been many scientific studies researching the absence or presence of a biological basis of homosexuality. Karen Hooker executed the first psychological test done to test for biological determinism in 1957. As a result of Hooker's finding, the APA removed homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychological Disorders in 1973. In 1975 it then released a public statement that homosexuality was not a mental disorder. In 1994, two decades later, the APA finally stated, "...homosexuality is neither a mental illness nor a moral depravity. It is the way a portion of the population expresses human love and sexuality".The following was also part of another statement:"Research suggests that the homosexual orientation is in place very early in the life cycle, possibly even before birth. It is found in about ten percent of the population, a figure which is surprisingly constant across cultures, irrespective of the different moral values and standards of a particular culture." Statement on Homosexuality, American Psychological Association, 1994-JUL.

D.F. Swaab conducted the next noteworthy experiment in 1990. At the same time, another scientist, Laura S. Allen made a similar discovery in the hypothalamus as well. This experiment became the first to document a physiological difference in the anatomical structure of a gay man's brain. Swaab found in his post-mortem examination of homosexual males' brains that a portion of the hypothalamus of the brain was structurally different than a heterosexual brain. The hypothalamus is the portion of the human brain directly related to sexual drive and function. In the homosexual brains examined, a small portion of the hypothalamus, termed the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), was found to be twice the size of its heterosexual counterpart. “Biological Basis for Homosexuality.” Online. 8 April 2003. Available http://www.geocities.com/southbeach/boardwalk/7151/biobasis.htmlAnother line of testing at Stanford, done to support the biological perspective are neuroendocrine studies. The neuroendocrine viewpoint's basic hypothesis is that sexual orientation is determined by the early levels (probably prenatal) of androgen on relevant neural structures. If highly exposed to these androgens, the fetus will become masculinized, or attracted to females.One scientist Dean Hamer examined the possibility of homosexuality being an X-linked trait. He examined the family trees of openly gay men, and thought he saw a maternal link, leading him to investigate his theory of X-linkage. He took 40 DNA samples from homosexual men, and genetically examined them. He found that there was a 'remarkable concordance' for 5 genetic markers on section of the X-Chromosome called Xq28. His findings were dubbed the "gay gene study". This finding of a possible 'gay gene' prompts a look into two evolutionary concepts, and how they are affected. All this and more can be found freely on the internet. Taylor, Tim. “Current Theories on the Genesis of Homosexuality.” Online. 11 April 2003. Available http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/timt/ papers/twin_studies/theories.html

I can quote scientific studies ad nauseum (already have), and perhaps some of these should be brought to the notice of Dubya’s nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. James Holsinger, so he can get round to tackling more pressing problems relating to poor health care issues in the US of A. Or find a cure for being poor. Leave people’s sexual orientation alone and don’t aspire to finding a cure for it so he can get nominated for the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The tirade on homosexuality is not only directed at the US surgeon General, but our own people as well who lack sensitivity and understanding of facts.

Our ---- ul Haq is not alone in his stupidity, our (dis) honourable government’s official spokesperson has also spoken, and the British High Commissioner has been SUMMONED to the foreign office to convey the government’s displeasure and dismay over the conferring of knighthood on a great writer. When will we learn to honour our own, instead of disparaging them?The latest on this front is that Iran (predictably) and Indonesia have joined the chorus of the mullahs against Sir Soloman, I personally like Mr. Cowasjee’s letter in the Dawn today 20th June, suggesting Mr. Ul-- ul Haq be provided a special plane so he can personally carry out his mission!!

Again, while I admire Rushdie's prolifigate writing (if not the style), I can't help but wonder that if the Muslim world truly wanted to express their displeasure with his knighthood, wouldn't it be better/smarter for them to simply NOT generate additional laudatory publicity for him? I mean, I've been running my house on a generator for the last week, I don't give a flying rat's ass about Rushdie's knighthood, I want the government to fix the freaking power cables and give me electricity again. The opportunism and shallowness of these people never ceases to amaze me. Jackasses, one and all.

As for the Vatican. I met Ratzinger when I was in college. He was a bastard then, and he's a bastard now. Bigot.

Apologies for the massive spelling errors in my comments, I think it is time got my eyes tested again.

The paragraph should read: "All I have to say is that the 'loo' will not be silent much longer, as the Rushdie knighty naughtiness causes the bearded ones to suffer horrendous uprising from the bottom.

words of wisdom

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought and, though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Bertrand Russell

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.Noam Chomsky

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.Albert Einstein

Each century seems to take on a particular character as we view it in retrospect. How will the 20th Century be remembered? My guess is that this dramatic span of 100 years will ultimately be marked not by computers or the Internet, but by the drive toward individual freedom, the breaking of human barriers of prejudice, and the opening of society to include all people.John S. Spong

DESIDERATA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.Max Ehrmann